Hamburg seeking new police director

HAMBURG -- The borough will advertise for a new police director after the existing contract with Wayne Yahm was allowed to expire and the Borough Council did not renew the annual agreement.

Mayor Paul Marino said Wednesday that no formal council action was needed to simply allow the contract with Yahm to expire at the end of February.

"All parties agreed," he said of the decision.

Yahm, a retired Bergen County Sheriff's Department captain, was hired for the civilian post in 2012 and from the beginning, the position has been a point of controversy between the borough and the union that represents the uniformed officers.

The position was created with the retirement of former Police Chief Jan Wright as a way to save the borough money.

As a retired police officer, Yahm could be retained at a much lower salary without having to pay for pension benefits.

However, Yahm, as a civilian, could not act in any law enforcement capacity, which soon became the basis for much of the controversy.

The union claimed in several complaints to the Sussex County Prosecutor's Office that Yahm had stepped over the line from being a civilian into areas in which only sworn law enforcement officers can go, such as access of internal files, access to computer systems and even driving a police car or taking a formal complaint from a civilian.

Several letters and memos were issued by the prosecutor's office following the complaints with directives outlining the police director's responsibility to stay in strictly administrative functions.

In lieu of a police chief, the borough appointed an officer in charge to take over responsibilities of the chief, such as internal affairs investigations, pistol permit applications and even investigating liquor license renewals.

In February 2017, the prosecutor's office executed a search warrant of the police station and installed prosecutor's office Detective Douglas Porter, a retired State Police station commander, as a monitor.

He was to be at the Hamburg police station whenever Yahm was to be there.

The office also said it was continuing with its investigation into Yahm's actions as alleged by the union.

On Wednesday, First Assistant Prosecutor Gregory Mueller said his office was aware that the Borough Council had allowed Yahm's contract to expire.

He said as a result, the office will likely be reducing the time Porter spends at the department to one day a week to assist the recently named Officer-in-Charge Sgt. George Gunderman with the duties of the position.

He said reports are that Gunderman "is progressing nicely into those responsibilities," and that it may be likely in the near future for Porter to be fully back to his duties in the prosecutor's office.

He also said staff at the prosecutor's office will meet "to re-evaluate" the open file on Yahm's time as police director.

Nevin Mattessich, president of the Fraternal Order of Police lodge, which represents Hamburg officers, has said in the past the union, as a matter of course, opposes the concept of civilian police director positions, but in Hamburg's case, most of the problems were with how Yahm conducted himself in the office.

Marino said the council will take in applications and resumes "and see what we get. Then we'll meet in April to discuss this further."

He said the advertisement for the police director position was being reviewed by the borough's attorney and should be published within a few days.

Bruce A. Scruton can also be contacted on Twitter: @brucescrutonNJH or by phone: 973-383-1224.